Oxidative Coupling of Methane to Ethylene Over Sodium Promoted Manganese Oxide

Manganese oxide catalyst promoted with sodium and supported on silica exhibits fairly good activity and selectivity towards the synthesis of ethylene from methane at the optimum operating conditions. Methane and oxygen were fed into a tubular fixed bed reactor packed with catalyst under atmospheric pressure. The effects of temperature, residence time and feed composition on conversion, selectivity and yield were investigated. Ethane and ethylene (C­۲ compound) were obtained with ۳۳% selectivity at a ۴۳% conversion of CH۴ over ۳cc of ۵ Wt% Na-promoted Mn۲O۳ at ۸۳ C. In this reaction system both the C۲ selectivity and CH۴ conversion increased with an increase in reaction temperature up to ۸۳۰C.